Posted on 02/11/2023 5:53:19 PM PST by marshmallow
Father Daniel L. Mode, chaplain of the Coast Guard, stands in the large atrium of the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., in front of a massive wall of flags and insignia of the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard. | Credit: Leslie Miller/Arlington Catholic Herald
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 5, 2023 / 04:00 am Father Daniel Mode was the chaplain for the “Lone Survivor” SEAL team in Afghanistan and has authored a book about the famed “Grunt Padre,” Father Vincent Capodanno.
Now there’s a new distinction on Mode’s impressive service record: leading the chaplaincy efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard, the first Catholic priest to hold that important role in 12 years.
Yet Mode, 57, says his greatest mission is bringing the peace of Jesus Christ to the service members and civilians to whom he ministers.
“Peace is kind of my mantra,” Mode told CNA.
He was ordained in 1992 in the Diocese of Arlington, where he served for 13 years, pastoring Queen of the Apostles Parish in Alexandria from 2001 to 2005.
Mode was deployed as a chaplain to Afghanistan in 2005, and within the first 24 hours of being in theater he came face-to-face with the realities of war.
“I had my first death,” he said. “The soldier died in my arms in a field hospital in Kandahar.”
After ministering to service members in Afghanistan for 22 months, Mode said he realized the “amazing need for chaplains” and felt a “call within a call” to continue serving those who serve.
Since receiving his bishop’s permission to become a full-time, active military chaplain in 2007, Mode has worked to share God’s peace in his ministry all over the world. He has spent nine years overseas, seven of those years on ships and aircraft.......
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
I met Lieutenant Capodanno at a ceremony at the Naval Prep School several years ago. I asked him if he would sign a book about his famous uncle for me. He said yes, but I lost track of him.
Any of you Marines out there know where this helicopter pilot went?
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